EDIT (3 STARS): The owner, David, called me and waived the charges after seeing this review. He was polite and professional, while navigating the confusion of what happened between the locksmith and our management company, then admitted that he sends out the calls to other locksmiths that don't work directly for him. He offered to fix the lock, which we're awaiting a decision from the church on whether or not they wish to have them come back. He did not have an explanation as to how people could ensure that they don't get stuck with random prices set by people who work for a different company than the one that they called, or how to avoid this in the future. He asked me to remove this review, but I feel it's pretty important to leave it up. David made the situation right, but people should know this is essentially a call center and you do not know who you're going to get. They'll step in only if you complain, as is evident by other reviews.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (1 STAR):
Bad service. Shady payment. Straight up harassment.
The service guy was good at first. We needed a cylinder change. Apparently it required drilling. I accept these things happen, but I've had better experiences with more knowledgeable locksmiths. The lock still doesn't feel quite right but he says it would be even more invasive to get it working properly. Not quite sure that's true and I think a better locksmith could have done a better job, especially for the price.
Regardless, where we had an even more serious issue was pricing and collection of payment. First he said he couldn't give a quote before doing the job. I asked if it would be over $700, he said it should be around there. After the job the price was over $1,000 for a simple cylinder drill and change. They tried telling me that Mul-T-Locks were $600. Then when I told them I knew what a Mul-T-Lock actually costs, the price dropped to $400 for the cylinder. Still absurdly high, even with labor. The labor for cylinder removal was also almost $400. Then a service fee, and a credit card fee (give me a break). They asked about taxes, tried avoiding them, wouldn't write an invoice (just a handwritten receipt) and demanded to be paid on the spot. I told them that our management company needs to pay for the locks, I'm just a resident, so please invoice the management company. The guy called his boss back and forth a bunch of times, refused to write a proper invoice, asked if I could send them Zelle, and eventually sent me a screenshot of a code for Square... What kind of business method is this!? We settled on $850. Still very high, but at least within the acceptable range. Again, all of this is shady, unprofessional and not how anyone should be running things.
It gets worse.
I said I'm forwarding this over to management. He was suspicious he wouldn't get paid. I said we've paid them before, and asked him to do things the way they should be done. Within two hours I got called at least five times by various people at the company, including the locksmith himself, harassing me about payment. Apparently, the management messed up the payment. They paid the past zelle account they'd used before, rather than the screenshot of a square code texted across three different phone numbers (with a business payment strategy so elegant and secure, what could go wrong!). When this was explained to the locksmith and I stated he should expect payment by the management company some time today, he started yelling at me that I paid someone else, not him (that earlier zelle code, remember?). Earlier that day he said he wasn't the one personally collecting the money, which is why he couldn't come down on the price. So which is it?
Eventually the locksmith said he was going to come back to the building and "get this all taken care of". I said if you come back to the building there will be serious issues because i'm considering this harassment at this point. I asked him yet again to call management. He stated they hung up on him. I called management and they said he was screaming at them. All of this checks out. He called again and I said learn to run a business or tell your boss to. Better yet... just wait an hour until the payment goes through and chill tf out.
A lot of yelling and constant phone calls and harassment. A poorly installed lock. The owner obviously puts all the onus on the locksmiths or holds them responsible for parts costs or something. There's a ton of shadyness going on here. read more